[ad_1]
Maccabi still has little arithmetic access to the playoffs, but would enter it unless circumstances were particularly favorable.
Ram tik “Barcelona”
Four rounds before the end of the Euroleague regular season, only one team secured the right to play in the playoffs: “Barcelona” led by Šarūnas Jasikevičius. The Blue Pomegranates are very close to accomplishing another important goal: securing the squad’s advantage in the quarterfinal series.
Barcelona have won 22 matches in 30 matches and are three points ahead of the four closest pursuers.
19-win CSKA Moscow, Istanbul Anadolu Efes, Olimpia Milan and Bayern Munich positioned themselves quite well. These teams gained a three-point advantage over the ninth-place clubs.
The other three places that today would guarantee entry to the playoffs are Fenerbahçe Istanbul (18 wins), Real Madrid (17) and Zenit Saint Petersburg (16; the club has only played 29 games so far).
Baskonia de Vaskija, Valencia (16 each), Žalgiris (15) and Piraeus Olympiakos (14) are trying to overtake these clubs and get into the top eight.
Problem – from the first weeks
Maccabi, who are visiting Lithuania this week, are one of the most declining clubs of the year. When the Euroleague regular season was interrupted in March last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Tel Aviv club had already secured a ticket to the playoffs.
Meanwhile, this season Maccabi, who won 11 of 28 matches and finished 14th, was left with miniature arithmetic chances. Even if the “yellow” wins the remaining six games, he would have to get many favorable results in the duel of the best teams.
And the task of winning six games in a row seems unattainable, especially since Maccabi have never won more than two games in a row throughout the entire Euroleague season.
Maccabi worsened their situation at the beginning of the season. In October, Tel Aviv basketball players won only 2 out of 6 matches, and all their attempts to recover were unsuccessful after that.
A small spark of hope was ignited in December when Maccabi won 4 of 5 matches and even managed to beat Barcelona on the road. However, the increase was brief and insignificant.
“We want to win as many games as possible before the season is over. Then we will see if we have enough victories. It will probably not be enough,” admitted Maccabi manager Giannis Sfairopoulos a few days ago.
Trauma removed from cancer
At the beginning of the season, the Tel Aviv team was brought down by the serious injuries of several players. The young hope of Israeli basketball, Jovel Zoosman, 22, and the best Israeli basketball player of the last decade, Omri Kaspis, slowly recovering John Di Bartolomeo, could not play for long.
These basketball players play much worse than last season, even when they return to the lineup. The average of each of them fell at least twice (the most O. Kaspio – from 12 points to 3.5 points).
Not all expectations were met by the newcomers invited last year: the Croatians Ante Žižičius, who has been warming up the bench for NBA teams for several seasons (this season he has 8.4 points and rebounds 5.2 points in the Euroleague ) and Draganas Benderis (5.5 points).
The line-up change in the team was rather small, and coach G. Scairopoul had to rely on Americans Scottie Wilbekin (14.5 points, 4.1 res.), Tyler Dorsey (11.1 points) who wore the Maccabi clothing during the first season. , Elijah Bryant (9.8 points) and Othello Hunter (8.2 points, 5.3 pp.).
Crushing in Tel Aviv
Maccabi experienced almost the most pleasant moments of the season during the first game with Žalgiris. On November 12, Tel Aviv basketball players crushed Kaunas residents 85:57 on their field. It was Žalgiris’ biggest loss this season and Makabi’s only win by more than 12 points.
In the rival arena, Žalgiris scored the first 4 points of the match, but fell apart in the first half, which he lost at 14:24. After the second half, the Kaunas team fell behind by an astronomical difference of 30 points 23:53.
Thomas Walkup (12 points), Marius Grigonis and Joffrey Lauvergne (11 each) played more effectively in the Kaunas team, Tyler Dorsey (16), Chris Jones (15) and Dragan Bender (11) played in the team of Tel Aviv.
The “Yellow” then broke the chain of failures in the duel with “Žalgiris”. Before that, the Lithuanian team has won four times in a row since the beginning of 2018.
In Kaunas, Maccabi last won in October 2016, and since then the people of Žalgiris have outdone the guests of Israel in their arena three times in a row.
Israel plays better
Maccabi basketball players don’t always win in the Israeli league either. Yet they win often enough to rank first. The Yellows have won 17 games in 20 matches and are a few points ahead of Hapoel of Eilat (14 of 19), Hapoel of Jerusalem (12 of 17) and Gilboa Galil (11 of 17).
Holon’s Hapoel (early December), Gilboa Galil (late January) and Eilat’s Hapoel (late February) managed to break the Tel Aviv team’s winning streak this season.
Against Žižičius (14.1 points, 7.3 rebounds), Elijah Brown (13.5 points), Scottie Wilbekinas (12.9 points, 4.4 res.) They are the most useful players in Tel Aviv during the league game Israeli ..), Chris Jones (12.9 points, 5.6 res.), Tyler Dorsey (11.2 points) and Othello Hunter (10.2 points).
The “Yellows” have already won a national award this season. They won the Israel League Cup in December (Holon Hapoel 86:84). In May, Tel Aviv basketball players will also play the Israel Cup final, and their opponent will be Rishon’s Maccabi club.
